Ryan Shoots First: The Last of Us (S1 Ep3) “Long, Long Time”

This weeks episode of The Last of Us presented maybe the biggest diversion so far from the game but in a profound way that delivers a pretty great standalone piece of storytelling and drama.

Drawn out over 20 years we see the story of Bill and Frank. You may remember in the game we meet Bill after Ellie and Joel leave Boston and he mentions his partner Frank in passing and we find some letters scattered around as well as other clues that kind of fill in the story. Well the show decided to devote an entire episode essentially to the relationship of Bill and Frank and it was quite a bit of story telling. Anchored by the much anticipated Nick Offerman as Bill and Murray Bartlett as Frank. Both were excellent casting choices but Offerman as Bill really acted his ass off. As soon as the casting was announced many immediately thought he was perfect for the crotchety prepper and he was but Nick brought so much else to the role and his performance deserves to be recognized. As I mentioned while this deviates far from the game it adds so much to who originally was a pretty small character we did not spend a lot of time with. Props to the showrunners for identifying this as a story they wanted to tell and for executing on it so beautifully. 

Elsewhere though we did spend some time with Ellie and Joel and as their own relationship continues to grow, albeit slowly. We see them start to come together a bit. Ellie continually wants a gun and Joel continues to deny her but you can see where the relationship is going. Going into next weeks episode though will be a big leap story wise moving them into the next phase of their story. There is a pretty big easter egg payoff at the end of the episode that really made it feel like these first three episodes closed the first chapter and now we are starting the next. We also had another nice way of giving us exposition as Ellie and Joel stroll down the road and Joel tells her some of the way the virus started and just how hard those early days were not just fighting infected but the governments trying to lock everything down. This conversation serves to gives us background info but also depress us with a bleak view of humanity and survival before we go head on into Frank and Bills story. Again very well crafted. 

I can’t say enough about this episode it seems to be the most critically acclaimed of the series so far and it isn’t hard to see why when watching it. Big stuff coming next week and I can’t wait to see how it will be handled by the looks of the sneak preview. 

Observations

• In the apocalypse it’s important to have hobbies like rock stacking
• I keep getting ads for Joel’s jacket and its tempting
• I love how they are hyping up when Ellie gets a gun finally
• Science class with Ellie!
• Again a good way to give us exposition with this little history field trip.
• I have a bad feeling a certain demographic will relate to Bill…at least for a little while. 
• Props for making that look like a 2003 Home Depot. They could have just given up on it. 
• But Arbys did have the meats
• Frank is like the exact opposite of every survivor in a post-apocalypse show ever.
• “Currently nothing” haha 
• Loving this backstory
• I gotta say if had gone like 10 years without a strawberry I would act that way too. 
• Man this show just goes for the jugular
• I can’t be the only one thinking dying Frank looks like Jordan Peterson.
• He made the first meal they had together…
• They changed A LOT about the Bill stuff but I aint mad at it. 
• I am super bummed out we didn’t get to see Ellie interact with Bill 
• The shirt!!!
• The other shirt!! Look at them!
• Kinda love how they didn’t show us the bodies.